It was midmorning one day in May, and somewhere deep inside a 25-story tower in Sacramento, an auction, cloaked in secrecy, was about to begin.
There was no gavel pounding. No shouting. No frenzy of traders running around.
Instead, an unknown number of state workers surrendered their cellphones and took positions monitoring compu

Regulators proposed slapping a $503,000 fine on Costa Mesa Sanitary District at a hearing Friday -- a steep penalty for a 77,000-gallon sewage spill into Upper Newport Bay that closed beaches for four days two years ago.
The sanitary district, while admitting the spill at the hearing, opposed the fine, saying it was more than two times h

Nearly a decade ago, California policymakers, facing a frightening future of shriveling snowpacks and rising seas, created the nation’s most aggressive program to combat global warming. The 2006 law mandated broad reductions of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
Now, with the deadline approaching, Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic law

Forecasters are growing increasingly confident that warm ocean El Niño conditions will continue through the fall and winter – possibly leading to a drought-relieving rainy season.
Rain isn’t guaranteed, forecasters warn, but given the warmth brewing in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, downpours in California are increasin

Last summer, a Planned Parenthood executive dined with representatives of a biomedical company eager to learn how the organization gets fetal tissues and organs to researchers.
Or so she thought.
Dr. Deborah Nucatola’s two dining companions at a Los Angeles restaurant turned out to be actors with an anti-abortion group base

Orange County’s mountain lions are on the brink, and the only way to pull them back may soon become introducing lions from elsewhere, according to a new study.
Highways and housing projects have hemmed in Southern California’s lions, dividing them into two major groups. One is in the Santa Ana Mountains, the other is in the E

Sitting atop the throne of the fish kingdom’s food chain carries a cost, counted in flesh packed with chemicals.
Scientists have long known the higher an animal is on the food chain, the more toxins it will collect. But one of the largest mako sharks ever – caught in 2013 – illustrates just how filled with toxins those

ANAHEIM – When John Noble looked out his back window and saw a large bobcat wandering into his backyard from the canyon below, he instantly reached for his camera to document the visit.
Noble, 87, got the photographic evidence last week, printed the picture and later showed it to his neighbors in their Anaheim Hills community.

IRVINE – Three children have been bitten and another has been scratched in an unusual spate of recent coyote attacks in Irvine, according to state officials.
All of the incidents resulting in minor injuries have occurred in the last six weeks in a two-mile area of the Portola Springs region in northeastern Irvine.
Nine coyo

When the Santa Ana River leapt its banks in 1938 and tore through the small towns and farm fields of Orange County, flooding 68,400 acres and killing some 50 people, Prado Dam was already under construction.
The dam just west of Corona was meant to tame a river that for millennia had periodically flooded, depositing sandy soils in a fan

California residents reduced their water use by 29 percent in May, the sharpest decline since Gov. Jerry Brown began calling for cuts last year amid the intensifying drought.
All regions of the state showed improvement, including Orange County, where water districts reported an average 26 percent reduction in May compared with the same m

Sea lions barked in the post-dawn light as the Hubbs-SeaWorld researcher approached the Millie G., a boat loaded with 11 adult white sea bass, a depleted Southern California fish.
The researcher, Eric McIntire, had driven to Oceanside to pick up the sea bass and haul them to the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research hatchery in Carlsbad. There, the 11

Officials unveiled an initial expansion of Orange County Water District’s wastewater recycling facility in Fountain Valley on Friday, bringing production from 70 million gallons per day to 100 million gallons. With the $142 million expansion, the wastewater program provides enough recycled water to meet the needs of about 850,000 O

Joyce Sandison’s kitchen garbage bin sat nearly empty, but a clear plastic pail in her sink bulged with carrot peelings, corn cobs and potato skins.Just hours after Costa Mesa became the first city in Southern California to launch a food-scrap recycling program, the 84-year-old retired loan processor was ready to turn her veget

Huntington State Beach’s water quality problems are back.An annual beach report card released Wednesday ranked the beach at Brookhurst Street one of the 10 worst for water quality in the state, earning the label “beach bummer.” It was the only beach in Orange County with that ignominious distinction.In g